Relishing Every. Single. Moment.

Now that you’re caught up, let’s look back at some of last year’s memorable moments.

We started the year with Liz and Robby’s wedding. Last year was actually a banner year for weddings. We saw several friends tie the knot, including Cousin Tracy. We first celebrated with Tracy and Jeff on their wedding shower and then continued the celebration in Jamaica. They had a beautiful wedding at Coral Cove Resort in Little Bay. Then there was Mark and Jarrica’s wedding a couple of months later. Fortunately, their wedding was held in town so we didn’t have to hop on a plane or drive to another city. There’s also Daniel and Angi and then, more recently, Pia and JP. Congratulations to all of our friends who got married last year.

A few weeks after returning from our Jamaica trip, I completed the Zumba Basic 1 training. I officially received my Zumba instructor license and joined the Zumba Instructor Network (ZIN) on April 20. We followed that up with a trip to Overland Park for the Gina & Tanya Rock the Stage Tour. We also had a fun t-shirt destruction party earlier that same month, where the girls made creative shirts to wear to the event. Incidentally, this was the same day as Stephanie’s birthday party at Ciao! A huge tornado came through Wichita that night. We all barely got out of the restaurant before it hit the area. Lucky for us, we lived right by Waterfront and we were home in a couple of minutes so we had enough time to evacuate to the tornado shelter under the clubhouse of our apartment complex. Pretty scary stuff.

My cousin Reuel and his wife Sonny Jay visited Kansas in July. Reuel lives in Norway so I hadn’t seen him in almost twenty years. We were supposed to attend his wedding in the Philippines, but the airfare was quite high around that time and our budget just wouldn’t allow it. I’m glad they were able to visit us.

We spent our tenth wedding anniversary at Stewart Title closing on our house. We decided that our house is to be our anniversary present to one another… for the next ten years. LOL. We didn’t move in for a month because we wanted the entire interior repainted. We officially moved in around Labor Day weekend, which meant no trip to Texas this year. Ever since Sheryll and her family moved to Dallas, we’d been making the trip South every September. This would have been the third year of that annual tradition had we been able to do it. We were busy with moving and getting our new house in order, though. Perhaps we can resume the tradition next year. Although, now that we have extra space, we can host the Orbases when they visit us which hopefully will be here in a few weeks.

Since we didn’t go to Texas, we treated ourselves to an overnight stay in Kansas City for the Journey concert. That was my first ever concert in the rain. The concert was held at an outdoor arena and we had floor seats. I didn’t plan on it raining when I purchased the tickets. We still had fun, though.

We made our annual trek to Legends Outlets in Kansas City on the evening of Thanksgiving for Moonlight Magic. Brian and I have been doing the Black Friday thing for a few years now and I think we’ve finally gotten it out of our system. This should be our last year. There will be no crazy midnight shopping trips in store for us this year. Brian will be most happy about this news.

In December we hosted our first fight night here at the new house. Then I had my thyroidectomy. Brian was a mess, naturally. Other than an unnecessary trip the ER the Sunday following my surgery, recovery has been going well. I’m actually thinking about going back to doing some light running this week. I’ve been a slug all month and, now that my appetite is back, I’m starting to pack on the pounds.

Anyway, I think that pretty much sums up 2012. It has been an eventful year and I feel truly blessed. Each year that passes continues to be even better than the last and I have a feeling that 2013 will be the best year yet. I’ll see you guys again around this time next year as we recap the year’s highlights.

Who We Are

Brian and Ching met in 1999 and have been together ever since. Brian was born and raised in Wichita. He moved away to live in Memphis for a few years and then returned. It was after he returned to Wichita that he met Ching. Coming home was probably the best decision he's ever made, besides marrying Ching.

Ching is an exotic and petulant little flower imported from the Philippines. Her family moved to the Wichita area in the mid-90s. She is an avid blogger and picture-taker. She is quite prolific and has authored most of the posts on the site.

Brian and Ching are inseparable and enjoy many activities together including traveling, dancing, bowling, chess, and poker. The only activities they don't share are video games (mostly Brian's thing) and Zumba (that's all Ching). They live in Wichita with their two adorable dogs, Molly and Saki.

This blog started in 2002 to document their life after marriage and has since evolved into a chronicle of their day to day adventures.